Refrigerator cabinet construction



19571 R. L. SPENCER 2,565,995

REFRIGERATOR CAB'INET CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 4, 1949 IN V EN TOR.ROBERT LOU/S SPENCER ATTV.

Patented Aug. 28, 1951 REFRIGERATOR CABINET CONSTRUCTION Robert LouisSpencer, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Avco Manufacturing Corporation,Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application January 4, 1949,Serial No. 69,169

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to refrigerators and more particularly to arefrigerator of the household type having an auxiliary food storagecompartment in the door.

An object of my invention is to provide a refrigerator door having anauxiliary food storage compartment disposed entirely within the door andaccessible from the inner side of the door when the door is open.

Another object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary food storagecompartment in a refrigerator door in which the auxiliary doorcompartment is maintained at a relatively high temperature ascompared tothe temperatures within the refrigerator proper without any specialheating, heat conducting, or other means for raising the temperature ofthe auxiliary compartment.

A further object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary food storagecompartment in a refrigerator door positioned substantially opposite thetrim frame joining the inner and outer shells of the refrigerator at thefront of the cabinet whereby a restricted airflow relationship isprovided between the area defined by the opening to the auxiliarycompartment and the interior of. the refrigerator.

A still further object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary foodstorage compartment ,in a refrigerator door having a door providingaccess to the interior of said compartment and a shelf disposed uponsaid compartment door for withdrawing food from said compartment whensaid auxiliary door is opened.

These and further objects of my invention will be apparent from thefollowing description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a refrigerator cabinet provided with adoor embodying my in vention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the door and refrigerator cabinetillustrating. the main refrigerator door in its closed position;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the door to the auxiliary food storagecompartment. showing the configuration of the shelf carried by the door;

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the door illustrating a slide membermounted on the door for regulating air flow through the door.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a refrigerator of thehousehold type having a cabinet I! and a door l2 and provided with anon-refrigerated bin It at the bottom of the cabinet. The refrigeratormay be cooled by any conventional refrigerating system adapted tocirculate refrigerant through an evaporator IS in order to coolcompartment II. The cabinet is constructed of spaced inner and outershells l8 and 20 having insulation l9 therebetween. A breaker strip 2!extends between the inner and outer shells at the front of the cabinet.Door l2 extends upwardly to the top of the cabinet.

During operation of the refrigerating mechanism, the cabinet interior ismaintained at a temperature sufiiciently low to preserve food storedtherein, for example, 40 F. When butter or the like is placed within thecabinet, it will be maintained at a temperature sufliciently low torender the butter diflicult to spread upon its removal. Accordingly, Iprovide an auxiliary compartment for butter or the like which isnormally maintained at a temperature sufliciently high to render thebutter capable of easy spreading immediately upon its removal from thecompartment. This temperature, which is preferably to F., is adequate topreserve butter for a limited time and is obtained by positioning theauxiliary compartment so that a restricted airflow relationship ismaintained between the area defined by the opening to the auxiliarycompartment and the interior of the cabinet.

Referring to Fig. 2, door l2 includes a recessed portion 22 adapted toreceive a plurality of shelves 2;, 26, 28, for receiving food to bestored therein. Above recessed portion 22, door 12 includes a forwardlyextending portion 3|! provided with a flat vertical front 32 which isdisposed closely ad acent to breaker strip 2| when the door is closed.A-door gasket 33 extends entirely about the outer periphery of the doorto seal the cabinet against leakage of heat therein. An auxiliary foodstorage compartment or butter conditioner 34 includes a liner 36 withinportion 30 with insulation extending. about the top,

sides, bottom and rear of the compartment.

Compartment 34 is preferably positioned in the door so that while mostof the compartment lies above the vertical extremity of the interior ofthe refrigerator cabinet, the lower extremity of the auxiliarycompartment lies below the upper extremity of the interior of thecompartment Thus the bottom wall 31 of compartment 34 extends slightlybelow the top wall 23 formed by the inner shell of the refrigeratorcabinet. Satisfactory results have been obtained by positioning theauxiliary food storage compartment so that more than half of thecompartment lies vertically above wall 23.

A door 40 is pivotally mounted on a vertically disposed hinge 42 whichmay be provided with a preloaded spring (not shown) to maintain the doorin a normally closed position. A shelf 48 is mounted on door 40 suchthat the shelf will be disposed into and withdrawn from compartment 34upon closing and opening of the door. A vertical rail 35 extends aroundthe periphery of the shelf to prevent food from fallingoil' the shelfwhen door 40 is opened. In order to provide maximum shelf area and topermit opening and closing of door 40, shelf 48 is recessed on its sidesat the forward end of the shelf as shown at 50 and 52 in Fig. 3. Thus,shelf 48 is substantially as wide as com partment 34 at the end of theshelf adjacent door 40 but is reduced in width near the opposite endthereof to accommodate the lateral offset of the shelf as it iswithdrawn from the compartment.

In order to permit flexibility in the amount of airflow into and out ofcompartment 34, door 40 is provided with a series of openings 54 in thesurface thereof and a shutter 56 slidably mounted on the door. As shownin Fig. 4, shutter Siiincludes a series of openings 51 in its face whichcooperate with openings 54 to vary the effective opening in door 40.Oppositely disposed brackets 60 and 62 serve to slidably support shutter56 on door 40. A recess is provided in trim strip 2| to accommodatehandle 65 of the door 40 when door I2 is closed.

Butter conditioners have heretofore been placed either directly in themain food storage compartment of the refrigerator or hung on the door insuch manner that the open end of the conditioner directly faces theinterior of the refrigerator. With such arrangements it has beennecessary to provide a tight seal about the door opening to theconditioner, and in many cases to heat the interior of the conditionereither electrically or, in some instances, by a metallic thermallyconductive path through which heat is conducted to the interior of theconditioner. By placing the conditioner so that more than half of theauxiliary compartment is disposed vertically above the upper extremityof the refrigerated interior of the refrigerator, insulation may beutilized entirely around the auxiliary compartment at the top, sides,rear and bottom. All need for introducing heat by special means iseliminated, heat loss into the refrigerator is minimized, and expensivedoor seals at the door to the auxiliary compartment are omitted. Thetemperature of the door to the compartment and the temperature at thearea adjacent the exterior of the door at the opening to the compartmentis sufliciently high to permit direct airflow into the interior of thecompartment through openings in the door and still eliminate the needfor any special heating means for raising the temperature within thecompartment. There is a constant restricted airflow relationship betweenthe area exterior of the compartment between the door and breaker stripwhich results in a door temperature substantially higher than that inthe refrigerator cabinet itself.

By this construction there is provided an auxiliary food storagecompartment having a shelf for automatically withdrawing food stored inthe compartment when the door to the compartment is opened. The lowerportion only, of the compartment, faces directly into the relativelycold portion of the refrigerator cabinet. Due to the restricted airflowbetween the exterior of the auxiliary compartment door and the breakerstrip, relatively high temperatures are maintained in this area. Heatloss into the refrigerator proper is reduced and at the same time allauxiliary heating means for the conditioner and door seals are thereforeeliminated.

While a particular embodiment of my invention has been disclosed anddescribed, various changes and modifications may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope thereof as set forth in the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. In a refrigerator cabinet formed of spaced inner and outer shellshaving a breaker strip extending therebetween and having a doorextending to the upper extremity of said outer shell, an auxiliary foodstorage compartment in said door, said compartment extending partiallyabove and partially below the inner shell of said cabinet, and a seconddoor for providing access to said food storage compartment.

2. In a refrigerator cabinet formed of spaced inner and outer shellshaving a breaker strip extending therebetween, said inner shell defininga space adapted to be refrigerated, a door for providing access to saidspace, an auxiliary food storage compartment in said door extendingabove the upper extremity of said inner shell and adjacent said breakerstrip, a second door for providing access to said auxiliary food storagecompartment, said space and said second door being in restricted airflowrelationship.

3. In a refrigerator cabinet having a refrigerated main food storagespace, a door providing access to said space, an auxiliary food storagecompartment disposed within said door having an opening facing in partthe interior of the refrigerated space and in restricted airflowrelationship therewith when said door is closed, a second door forproviding access to said compartment, and a variable restricting meanscommunicating with said compartment and the space to regulate air flowbetween the refrigerated space and the interior of said compartment.

ROBERT LOUIS SPENCER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,027,124 Stockstrom Jan. 7, 19362,068,550 Knight Jan. 19, 1937 2,086,019 Dyer JuLv 6, 1937 2,300,405Cook Nov. 3, 1942 2,303,806 Wild Dec. 1, 1942 2,311,549 James Feb. 16,1943'

